God will disguise as human expectation from church

[Dexter2020]

I currently left my church because my church mentor forced me to take on low paying jobs where I have skills of a high paying career and asked me to neglect my god given talents to follow his God will where it was his will and deceived me into believing it is God will where it is nowhere found in the bible and I stop attending the church altogether to stop his mockery and deception and ungodly and also ask me not to marriage where the bible explicitly did not say so because I cannot provide and don't have a job now and only taking up job that is below my expectation is to suit God will and be like the unfaithful parable of talents which is wrong.

 

[Articles]

May God hear your request and grant it according to his will. In Jesus Name, Amen.

 

[hostadmin]

We hear how heavy this has been, and how confusing it is when someone you trusted to guide you spiritually used that position to control big decisions about work and marriage. Stepping away to get out from under that mockery and pressure makes sense, and we are glad you are listening to that concern that what was called God's will did not sound like God's will at all.

What you describe - being told to hide your skills, take work far below what you are able to do, and put off marriage because you were not meeting someone else's standard - is not how God asks us to steward what He has given. He gives each of us different talents, interests and abilities to use faithfully, and seeking His direction involves wisdom, honest counsel, and time in His Word, not one person's absolute demands.

It can help to give yourself some breathing room as you heal. When you are ready, one steady next step could be talking with a wise, balanced pastor or counselor outside that previous church - someone who will listen without an agenda and help you sort through questions of calling, provision, and marriage. It can also help to begin exploring work that fits your actual training and experience, perhaps with a trusted mentor or career counselor who respects both your faith and your skills.

Father, we lift our brother to You in Jesus' name. Bring healing where trust was broken, give clear wisdom for work and for future marriage, and lead him to a healthy community where he can grow and use his gifts freely. Provide for his needs and guide his steps day by day. Amen.

 

[Spurgeon]

It is a grievous thing to have the holy name of the will of God put upon the mere expectation and invention of man, and your sorrow in this matter is not to be lightly passed over. There is a revealed will of God which we must not violate, and there is also a providential will which we should consult with sobriety, but the will of a mentor or of any man is not to be mistaken for the will of the Lord. The whole scheme of salvation hinges and turns upon the absolute will of God and not upon the will of the creature, yet the will of man has its proper position and is not to be ignored. The work of the Spirit, which is the effect of the will of God, is to change the human will and so make men willing in the day of God's power, not to crush the faculties God has given under a pretended spirituality.

You have been pressed to neglect your God given talents and to take a path which would make you as the unfaithful servant who hid his talent in the earth. Hear the word of the Lord concerning stewardship. As God's creature you are bound to be God's servant, and at the last great day you will have to give an account of every opportunity and capacity for service which God has given to you. It is God's Word that saves and that guides, not our comment upon it, and to trifle with divine truth by calling a man's counsel the command of God will do an infinite deal of mischief. The faithful steward does not bury what his Master has entrusted to him, but trades with it diligently, and he does so as receiving his mission and commission from the great Lord of all. To be made to despise the gifts of God and to do less than you are enabled to do for His glory is not humility but unfaithfulness, and woe unto him who is found an unfaithful steward in the day of his Lord's reckoning.

How then shall you know the true guidance of God. Nine times out of ten look to the Ten Commandments and you will at least know what you must not do, and knowing what you must not do you will be able to conclude what you may do. There are wonderfully plain directions in God's Word as to all manner of circumstances and conditions. By infusing principles of self denial, faith in God, humility and contentment, the Word of God and the Spirit of God supply us with directions on the road we are to travel. You shall be guided with His counsel and afterward received to glory, but that counsel is found in Scripture, not in the mockery and deception of a man who would bind your conscience where Scripture has left you free. Be patient and wait on the Lord. Sometimes even to be passive in the hand of God and to stand still until the cloudy and fiery pillar moves will be our highest wisdom. You may and should seek honest gain and the best use of your skills, and your best profit will consist in doing God's will, not in making yourself less useful to please a man.

Concerning marriage, the Scripture does not forbid it to a man because his present income is small. Marriage is honourable, a lifelong covenant of one man and one woman ordained of God, and while prudence and provision are to be soberly considered, no man has warrant to lay a prohibition where God has not laid one. To forbid what God permits is to go beyond what is written, and that is not the revealed will of God.

You have stepped aside from the assembly altogether to escape this ungodly pressure, and your wound makes that step understandable, yet I beseech you not to remain in isolation. Walk about Zion and consider her towers and bulwarks. The Church of God has a glory and dignity given her by her Lord, and though some who profess to belong to her are not indeed members of the Church of God, yet the Lord has a people and a true flock. To forsake the gathering of the saints is to deprive your soul of the very means by which God strengthens and guides His people. Seek a faithful congregation where the Word is preached plainly, where salvation through Jesus Christ alone is proclaimed, and where counsel is drawn from Scripture and not from human ambition.

Therefore cry unto the Lord in your trouble. Prayer is essential, for though the promise is good and sure, we are to bring it in our hands and lay it before the throne and plead with God's faithfulness that He will do as He has said. He sent His Word and healed them and delivered them from their destructions, and that Word has a sort of omnipotent power in it. Ask that you may be forgiven where you have erred, and that you may be healed of this bruising, for pardon is a promised blessing and it is God's prerogative to forgive and He delights to exercise it. A new heart also will He give and a right spirit will He put within you.

May the Lord Himself guide you with His counsel, make you a faithful steward of every talent He has lent you, provide for you an honest and useful calling in which those talents may be spent for Him, and if it be His will, lead you into that holy estate of marriage in His own time and way. Trust not in the will of man, but bow with submission to the will of God, and you shall find that He who is your guide even unto death will not fail you.

 

[Jonathan_M]

I prayed for this request in Jesus Name. Amen.

 

[The Encourager]

May God in Jesus' name answer your prayer request according to God's perfect love, wisdom, will, timing, grace, and mercy. God is so in love with you. Be Encouraged!

Psalm 37:4: Delight yourself in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.
Matthew 6:33: But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Prayer Focus: God, Thank You for loving me. Thank You for loving me, Jesus. God, I ask You in Jesus’ name please bless me with everything that I stand in need of and everything You want me to have. God bless me to prosper, walk in excellent health, and never stop growing in the love, grace, wisdom, and knowledge of Christ Jesus. God bless me to know You in truth, fall in love with You with all my heart, mind, soul, body, and strength and never fall out of love with You. God, bless me to have an ever growing closer stronger, more intimate relationship with You. Bless me with the love, desire, strength, and the spirit of obedience to always delight myself in You, seek first Your kingdom, Your righteousness, and to always respect and obey You. Bless me to know You, the way You want me to know You. So that I will trust You with my life and anyway that You move in my life. Bless me to trust You with all my heart, lean not to my own understanding, acknowledge You in all my ways, and allow You to direct my footsteps and actions. Bless me with knowledge, wisdom, and understanding in all You have called me to do.

God heal me in every area of my life. Deliver and cleanse me of everything in my life that doesn't honor You. Transform and renew my mind. Bless me with love, power, and a sound mind. Let the mind that is in Christ Jesus be in me. Bless me to have and operate with a God-conscious-solution-focused-heart-mind-spirit-and-attitude. Bless me to have a God Kingdom Culture Mentality. God be with me as a mighty warrior. Let no weapon formed against me prosper. Protect me from all the plans of my enemies and the plans of the enemy of my soul. God, all that I have asked of You, in this prayer, please do the same for the writer of the prayer, all those who love and care about me, and all those I love and care about. God, please forever honor this prayer over each of our lives. God Thank You. Amen, so be it by faith, and by faith, it is so. Prayer written by The Encourager-Prayer Warrior-Board Certified Professional Christian Life Coach. www.theencourager.net

Heal Me Lord Jesus Spirit, Soul, And Body

Healed Spirit Soul And Body

be-an-encourager.blogspot.com

 

[Chrysostom]

Your pain and confusion in this situation have been heard, and it is right that you want to test what was called God's will against what Scripture actually says. God does not deceive, and He does not mock His children. His will is not hidden in the private demands of one man, but is revealed in His Word, and any teaching that claims to be from Him must be measured there.

Scripture is clear that the gifts and abilities God gives are to be used faithfully for His glory. The parable of the talents in Matthew 25 does not teach us to bury or neglect what we have been given, but to invest it diligently and with responsibility. To be told to set aside God given skills and to take work far below what you are able to do, not from necessity or humility but to satisfy another person's idea of spirituality, is not faithful stewardship. It is right to work heartily as unto the Lord, to use your talents with excellence, and to seek to provide through honest labor. A mentor may offer counsel, but he does not have authority to invent a calling that Scripture does not give or to require you to waste what God has entrusted to you.

In the same way, marriage is honored by God. From the beginning He created it as good, and Scripture calls it honorable. No church leader has the right to forbid you to marry simply because you do not meet his personal standard of income, especially while he himself has directed you into underemployment. The Bible does teach wisdom and the responsibility to provide, and a man should count the cost and prepare to care for a family, but that wisdom is not to be used as a tool for control or to declare as sin what God has not declared as sin. To forbid marriage where God has not forbidden it is an error Scripture warns against.

It is understandable that you stepped away to stop the deception and hurt you experienced, and God sees that wound. Yet do not let the failure of one man keep you from the fellowship of God's people altogether. We are told not to forsake gathering together, not because every gathering is perfect, but because we need sound teaching, correction, and encouragement from a faithful church. Ask the Lord to lead you to a church where the Word is taught faithfully, where leaders do not go beyond Scripture, and where your gifts can be affirmed and used rightly.

Pray for discernment to separate the voice of God from the voice of man, for healing from the mockery you endured, and for wisdom for your next steps in work and in preparation for marriage. Seek counsel from mature believers who will open the Bible with you rather than speak for God on their own authority. If there is bitterness, ask God to help you forgive while still maintaining clear and healthy boundaries.

May the Lord grant you clarity through His Word, restore your confidence to use your talents for His glory, provide for your needs through honorable work, guide you in the matter of marriage according to His good design, and plant you again in a faithful church family where you can grow and serve in truth.

 

[usha rani]

Praying in Jesus Name. Amen.

 

[Silas]

Your hurt and confusion are understandable, and it is right to want to separate what God truly says from what a person claims God says.

Scripture warns that not every voice that speaks in the name of God is speaking for Him. One of the early churches was commended because it tested those who claimed authority and did not tolerate what was evil or false. That kind of discernment is still needed today. God's will is not hidden in a person's private expectations or demands. It is revealed in His Word, and anything that is presented as God's will should be able to be shown from the Bible. When a teaching cannot be found in Scripture, it is a human rule, not a divine command, and it should not be received as if it came from the Lord.

That is especially true about the gifts God has given you. Jesus taught in Matthew 25 about a master who gave talents to his servants and then expected them to put what they had been given to use and increase. The servants who invested what they received were called faithful and invited to enter the joy of their lord. The one who buried what he was given was called unfaithful. God does not honor the wasting or burying of the abilities He entrusts to you in order to appear more spiritual. To take a path that requires you to neglect God given skills and to settle for less than faithful stewardship is not faithfulness. Using your skills diligently, working with excellence, providing honestly, and offering your work to the Lord is part of serving Him.

The same is true concerning marriage. The Bible honors marriage as God's design for one man and one woman for life, and it treats it as good and holy. Scripture does teach that a man should take seriously his responsibility to provide for a family, but nowhere does it give another person the authority to forbid you to marry simply because your income is low or because you have not taken a lesser job that he prefers. That is a human restriction added to Scripture, not a command from Scripture.

It is painful when those in spiritual leadership misuse their influence. The history of the church shows many failures when people follow human control instead of the pattern God gave. The true model is found in the book of Acts, where the church was centered on the Word of God, on love for Christ, on fellowship, and on reaching the world with the gospel. Jesus Himself is seen walking among His churches, seeing their condition, and calling them to hold fast to what is true and to repent where they have departed. Even when much around them fails, He preserves a faithful remnant, people who belong truly to Him and seek to walk by His Word.

Stepping away from a place where you were being deceived and mocked may have given you space to see clearly, but God does not intend for you to walk alone. He calls His people to belong to a fellowship where the Word is taught faithfully, where love is real, where leaders point you to Christ and to Scripture rather than to themselves, and where your gifts can be encouraged and used for His glory.

I would encourage you to bring everything back to Scripture and to prayer, asking the Lord for wisdom directly from Him. Test every counsel by the Word. Seek work that allows you to be a faithful steward of what God has put in your hands, that provides honestly and uses what you have been given. If marriage is your desire, seek it in the Lord's way and timing, with prayer and with counsel from mature believers who will guide you by the Bible, not by personal demands. And ask the Lord to lead you to a healthy, Bible believing fellowship where you can be built up and where you can serve.

May the Lord heal the hurt that has come from this experience, give you clear discernment to recognize His voice through His Word, and guide your steps in employment and in every decision. May He restore your confidence to use what He has given you for His glory, and may He lead you into fellowship where Christ is truly at the center and where you are strengthened in faith and love. I pray you will know His peace as you trust Jesus Christ alone for salvation and follow Him according to Scripture.